Microsoft patents spying on employees

Software giant, Microsoft has patented a machine that can monitor the behavior of employees while also assigning positive or negative scores to everything they do.

According to GeekWire, the patent send the IT department a flag when someone who repeatedly cuts off colleagues during conversations, or warns when a supervisor who repeatedly bugs underlings during their lunch break. Such scoring would presumably rely upon subjective criteria set by the employer regarding what counts as “good” or “bad” work habits.

The range of possible monitored behaviours includes word phrases, body gestures, and mannerisms “such as wearing dark glasses in a video conference” or “wearing unacceptable clothing to a business meeting”. If Microsoft’s idea is adopted then workplace surveillance another step forward by creating software capable of analysing those human behaviours.

The idea is that workers might benefit from such monitoring software by getting feedback about their behaviour. In our experience workers want to be left alone and it is not helpful to point out what people do wrong.